


Lashing Out

by Origami_Roses



Series: Dark!Tony stories and snippets. [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Dark!Tony, Gen, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26573245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Origami_Roses/pseuds/Origami_Roses
Summary: I had originally planned to make this part ofIf You Say So- a bunch of short snippets featuring Dark!Tony (of varying shades of dark). However, as I started writing it, it refused to stay short. So now it's its own piece.
Series: Dark!Tony stories and snippets. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933546
Comments: 17
Kudos: 306
Collections: Teamtonystark1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had originally planned to make this part of [If You Say So](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25349728) \- a bunch of short snippets featuring Dark!Tony (of varying shades of dark). However, as I started writing it, it refused to stay short. So now it's its own piece.

"Her or me, Rogers", Tony said, looking at the young red-head who glared back at him. He couldn't believe _Captain America_ was championing a known terrorist, much less a known, _willing HYDRA agent_.

"Tony, she deserves a second chance. She just wants to make things right. She helped us."

The little witch was glaring daggers at him. "Yeah, sure she does. How about we start with an apology, then? Simplest way to take that first step."

Now both Rogers and the Witch were glaring at him. Welp, there was his answer.

"I'm serious, Rogers. Her or me, and it looks like you've already made your choice." He saw the Widow purse her lips from off to the side, but she said nothing.

"Right. Well then, bye." Tony turned and walked away. Let them think they'd won. They'd learn soon enough.

\-------------

His lab was still wrecked from Ultron's initial rampage, never mind everything else that had gone down. Tony didn't even bother to begin cleaning it, he had more important things to do. With JARVIS gone (and that thought, that _knowledge_ , burned like acid - worse than open-heart surgery) it took a bit of time and effort to manually lock down the lab and engage Protocol 1984 - Big Brother Is Watching on all the Avengers' floors. Many of the cameras, speakers and mics had been damaged in Ultron's attack, but Tony still managed to pull together a fairly coherent network. With his long familiarity coding NLUI, it took only a matter of minutes to add an algorithm to screen for various key words and phrases. He didn't want to be disturbed, but also couldn't trust his erstwhile team, nor the plans they might make. Even the bathrooms were monitored, now. (audio only, of course) 

Security taken care of for the moment, his first act was to call the contractors working on the residential training compound. He arranged for the residential rooms to be given higher priority, froze work on most of the rest of it and arranges a meeting to discuss renovations to the Tower. Getting _them_ out of his house would be the first step, and extensive renovations were the perfect reason. 

His next phone call was to Pepper. She needed to be informed of his decision to step away from The Avengers, and they needed to plan for the fallout. People deserved an explanation... and they'd get one. An initial press release was drawn up - blandly apologetic, assuring people that investigations were ongoing and aid was being organized - and a press conference to be held after the investigations were done. (After he was no longer sharing space with _them_. As an afterthought, he put a hold on their credit cards. He was sure to be criticized for his 'temper tantrum' anyway, so he may as well make a point while he was at it.) 

A few more phone calls and emails later, he was utterly done dealing with people. Since he planned to have all the Avengers' floors gutted and turned into high-security R&D labs for special projects teams, there was no point in cleaning. Tony spent some time rooting through the debris to get an idea of what might be salvageable, packed up the most valuable of it and left. He had no desire to rejoin _them_ , even for dinner and no intention of sleeping amidst the destruction. He headed for his childhood home - they'd not think to look for him there. 

It was dusty and musty, but he'd slept in far worse. At least the beds were soft. 


	2. Chapter 2

As expected, he heard _all about_ his many failings the next day. Rogers just had to get in a rant on how selfish and unfair he was being, and Widow managed to sound almost conciliatory while insulting him as petty and egotistical. Par for the course, really. At least they'd decided the two of them were sufficient to browbeat him into submission and hadn't brought along the main bone of contention. She was... elsewhere. 

He stifled his yawns through their reprimands and let the silence after they were done shouting linger just a hair too long. 

"Oh, you're actually letting me talk, now? That's so very kind of you, really. Thanks for finally allowing me to tell you I've been busy making arrangements for you all. Or, ya know, keep being nasty to me and I can just cancel the accommodations. Up to you." Rogers opened his big mouth and Tony just gave them a smirk when Widow glared at him until he shut it again without saying anything. 

"All righty, then. There should be rooms ready by the day after tomorrow in the training compound - I put those as priority and they should be laying carpet today and installing appliances in the kitchen tomorrow. Nothing too fancy at this point, but the bedrooms aren't trashed, the plumbing works and I'll make sure the kitchen is stocked." 

"But what about tonight and tomorrow night? You messed with our cards, we can't even rent a hotel room!" Rogers huffed indignantly. 

"Well, I suppose you'll just have to do whatever you did last night. Maybe add 'thinking carefully about your choices' to whatever activities you plan. Now, excuse me, your little rant already took up as much time as I have available for you right now. Gotta run." He ignored Widow's attempt to call him back. 

\-------------

After a couple hours spent in meetings with PR to discuss what would be revealed in the next phase of their carefully staged release of information surrounding Ultron, meetings with the people running the official investigation, meetings with his R&D heads on upcoming products (that was the highlight of his day!), and twelve further attempts by Rogers, Widow and Fury to force yet another meeting into his already busy schedule, Tony spent a few minutes in his ex-lab, saying good-bye to JARVIS. This was his grave, in a way, and it would soon be something entirely new. The servers were fried, but he packed them up anyway. There might be some salvageable data. He managed to get everything out without his ex-team noticing, and once again retreated to the musty, memory-haunted halls of his childhood. As bad as that past had been, he still preferred it to the present. The people were no nicer, but at least the memories couldn't continue to betray him. 

\-------------

That evening, his screening algorithm passed on the transcript for an interesting conversation between the Widow and Rogers. It tripped almost half the key words he'd input. 

-begin transcript-  


would it kill stark to be nice  
he's making a point steve. he told you to choose between wanda and him and is making sure we know what making a move against him means.  
he's being unreasonable and unfair. she's just a kid nat. she deserves a second chance.  
i'm not saying otherwise. i'm just saying it could have been presented better. she did fight against us and has made no secret she hates tony.  
she wants to do better. tony has to see that.  
do you know how many death threats tony gets, steve. how many people have threatened to kill him and tried to follow through.  
no  
17\. per year. on average. and that's just the ones who are caught acting on their threats. that's a lot of attempts on tony's life, steve. he is right to take wanda's threats seriously. you just bringing her into his living space with no warning has made him nervous, that's all. he's lashing out like this because he can't see she's not a real threat to him anymore.  
it's still unfair but i'll talk to him. i'll make him see the truth.  
give him a couple days to calm down steve. talk to him after we're moved into the compound so he can't rescind that offer.  
Ugh, fine nat. I won't break his door down. i can catch tony in a few days.


-end transcript-  


He wasn't sure whether to laugh or be appalled that they thought it was _only_ Wanda's presence he was having a problem with.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a long debate, but the verdict had been reached. The update on the investigation would be released the day before Rogers et al moved out of the Tower. They were getting restless and bored, almost certain to pounce on the information. And the PR team _wanted_ them to see it. At least the initial release. If the 'team' held true to form, they'd assume the initial block told them everything they needed to know and not bother following the subsequent updates. _(perfect)_

It was a carefully worded statement, implying that Tony's actions were receiving the brunt of the scrutiny and that he was ... reluctantly... cooperating. In the interest of an unbiased investigation, Iron Man would be stepping back from The Avengers for the duration. The public was assured that The Avengers would continue to be available to handle disasters, and they would be bolstered with the addition of 'a former member of the US military and an Enhanced woman who had assisted them in Sokovia'. They would help fill the hole left in the team by Iron Man's departure. Names were deliberately omitted.

When cornered by Rogers, Tony said it was to protect them - the little witch 'deserved a second chance', didn't she? Obviously that meant not dragging her past into the public view. He really hadn't expected Widow to accept that he'd cover for them so easily, but Big Brother didn't lie - there they were, on camera, celebrating. They'd have new, undamaged lodgings in the morning and hadn't lost their benefactor after all. He was egotistical enough to think leaving would actually affect their performance, and clearly needed them but didn't want to admit it. He was just lying to himself and would still be catering to their every need like a good little thrall. Huzzah! _(blind idiots_ 9_9 _)_

The cameras also caught the little witch alone in her room after the party, whispering to a sketch of her dead brother (probably done by Rogers). The mics only caught bits and pieces, but it was enough to catch her vows of bloody retribution after she 'bled that murderer dry and destroyed everything he cares about, just like he did with us'. The footage was saved, of course.

~~~~~~~

The move to the Training Compound went smoothly - his ex-team was more than eager to leave the shattered Tower. They had hardly bothered cleaning, either, despite having lived in the mess for three days. Granted, their floors hadn't seen nearly as much damage as Tony's lab and penthouse, but still...

As soon as they were out the door, a cleaning crew was ushered in. Everything they had left behind was either thrown out or donated and the rooms were completely empty by the end of the day, ready to be gutted and rebuilt.

Two days later, the next 'update' on the investigation was released. It included a request for Dr. Bruce Banner to make himself available to answer a few questions. Strangely enough, none of the other Avengers were required to do the same. Big Brother recorded exactly zero conversations about it, though data logs indicated the Widow, at least, had accessed the report.

Tony relished the lack of _certain people_ cornering him. The Compound was relatively isolated - there was no landing strip, no helipad, no transportation aside from a not-quite-new van that could carry the entire team. If _they_ wanted to force a meeting, they'd have to travel nearly an hour - depending on traffic, one way, just to try. And with the Big Brother algorithm integrated into the Compound surveillance system, well, it was pretty easy to avoid them. They still tried calling, of course. He ended up with several voice mails that he didn't even bother listening to. Complaints? Demands? Apologies (yeah, right)? It made no difference. He didn't need to hear them.

The flow of communication was one way, now. With the contractors were focusing on the Tower for now, and work at the Compound continuing on a different wing 'so as not to disturb them', Tony sent emails of daily updates of scheduled deliveries that might block the entrance to the Compound, utility work that might affect them... everything. He knew they'd stop reading them after just a few days, but proof that he was being a _good landlord_ was very important for his plan. They'd signed a contract about the state of their new accommodations ("for insurance purposes"), acknowledging that it was under construction and services might be interrupted, that a surveillance system was in place and recording 24/7, that workmen had access to all non-private rooms in their wing, that the facilities were brand new and they'd keep them clean and in good repair - that no one would be coming in to do it for them... He was going to hang them with a bureaucratic rope. 

~~~~~~~

The next PR release included a little footage of the final fight against Ultron. The Witch's face was clearly visible, as was the destructive power of her abilities. Tony used an old email account that dated back to his MIT years (which traced back to a Harvard admin office, and had been used to perpetrate a great many pranks and minor offenses) to log in and leave a comment hinting at her identity... with links to other surveillance records of the Witch's actions. in Seoul. when she was working _with_ Ultron.

It didn't take long for other ambitious hackers to jump on the information and find all sorts of lovely little goodies about her past, bringing the whole sordid mess of Johannesburg to light. And her part in Rogers' attack on him as Vision came online. Someone even got footage from the bunker they'd found the scepter in...

Tony was livid at seeing that. His plans for dealing with _them_ suddenly seemed far too kind and forgiving. Forget having the little Witch deported. Forget kicking them all off his dime to scrape by on their own. He'd thought seeing that Chitauri ship had spawned just a normal sort of panic attack, but nooooo.... it was that Witch messing with his already messed up head. Now, he wanted her head. Preferably on a pike. Maybe Rogers', too, for good measure. And possibly Widow's and Barton's as well.

A few phone calls got a new plan moving. He called in a few favors from some _useful_ contacts he'd made long before Iron Man. An email was sent to the Compound's residents regarding a new service appointment, and the very next day a remarkably non-descript electrician showed up to the Compound to upgrade their network. If he just happened to do a few other little jobs on the side... well, the landlord _had_ authorized them.

It took only a very short meeting with Legal and PR teams to decide to leak the footage of the Witch's whispered threats, followed by footage from the Compound of Rogers, Barton and Widow reassuring her and promising to protect her when the news about Ultron had first come out. (Barton was particularly solicitous and attentive. Tony wondered whether directing his wife's attention to that video would make him a bigger asshole, or a decent person.) With such proof of The Avengers' support of a 'former' terrorist, public opinion turned firmly against all of them. Tony issued an appeal to the public to not take action against them, though. Not because he cared about the team, but because he really didn't want to be blamed for whatever they'd do to anyone foolish enough to attack them. Dead civilians were not part of his plan.

The morning before he shut their water off a few days later, their daily email included the notice that the main would be temporarily down for maintenance. Not that they read the email... (And he got _so much footage_ of them issuing dire threats of bodily harm against him. The Witch's private rants to her brother's image were particularly disturbing in their extremely detailed viciousness. His legal team loved it.)

If the delivery truck carrying supplies for the construction crew just happened to show up a day earlier than expected, with a driver who was not part of the regular crew, no one really noticed. And if that driver happened to make a small detour to deliver a package with new cell phones for each member of the team, that was nice of him, wasn't it?

And if all those cell phones ringing at the exact same moment late at night just happened to create a frequency combination that triggered an explosive overload of the Compound's recently-altered ARC powered system... it was surely just a coincidence. Such a pity the residential wing was obliterated with no survivors. At least the work crew hadn't been caught in the blast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vision was staying at the Tower with Tony, Wilson may or may not have been collateral damage - you can decide for yourself whether he's still living in his own apartment.  
> Tony was acquitted of culpability in Ultron, and it was determined that the disaster at the Compound was an accident. (with the generally held - though never officially stated - opinion that even if it wasn't really an accident is should at least be ruled self defense...)
> 
> edit: fixed a couple spelling issues and added a bit with Barton.


End file.
